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How to Plan a Conference or Corporate Event in 15 Steps (Step-by-Step Guide)
Stressed about planning a conference or corporate event? You’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to plan a conference or corporate event step-by-step.
Topics on this page include:
How to plan a conference checklist
How long does it take to plan a conference
How to plan a conference agenda
How to plan a conference timeline
The importance of name badges and branded merchandise
And much more. Let’s get into it:
How to Plan a Successful Conference and Corporate Event
Promoting your company at a corporate event or conference is an effective business method that extends reach, raises awareness, and gains business.
To ensure that your event achieves its intended goals, it must be carefully planned and executed.
Planning a successful conference or corporate event requires a lot of preparation and close attention to detail to ensure everything runs as planned.
Below, you’ll find 15 must-know steps that will show you how to plan a successful corporate event that goes smoothly and reaches the maximum number of potential customers.
1. Determine Purpose, Audience, and Timeline
When planning a conference or corporate event, you will first need to decide the purpose of your event.
Is it to introduce your brand or business to a wider audience, generate business leads, or increase sales?
Identifying your target audience will help you tailor the event strategically to resonate with the right people.
You should start planning for a conference six months in advance, with larger events sometimes taking over a year.
An event timeline and checklist keep things on track and are useful when coordinating things like workshops, guest appearances, or product demonstrations.
2. Decide Your Budget
A corporate event and conference come with many operating costs. And if you’re planning your corporate event or conference on a budget, pricing for each item or service must be considered.
You should consider the costs of:
Booking the venue
Hiring equipment
Making marketing materials
Hiring team members
Paying for speakers (if applicable)
Organising food and refreshments
Check out this helpful conference cost estimator to learn more.
3. Book a Venue and Confirm the Dates
Step three in our guide on how to plan a conference or corporate event is booking a venue.
After the budget has been decided, you must select an appropriate venue for your event.
Venue choice can make or break a corporate event, so before committing to a booking, consider things like:
Location
Venue size
Accessibility
Parking
Make sure that your chosen venue is available on the dates you need and that your location has enough space to accommodate all your guests.
Considerations like wheelchair access or special braille or tactile signs should also be factored in to maximise inclusivity.
4. Create a Task List for Each Day of Your Conference/Corporate Event
Corporate and conference event planning require a systematic and detailed approach to keep things on track. To avoid problems, create a detailed task list for each event day.
A detailed conference agenda will help you keep things organised and ensure everything runs smoothly and on time.
5. Consider Technology for Hybrid Conferences and Corporate Events
An engaging and interactive conference can bring an exciting and appealing element to corporate business events.
Technology tools like large screens or projected images can generate a new level of excitement and engagement.
Hybrid events offer in-person and virtual experiences that can help you reach and engage a larger audience.
6. Book Guest Speakers if Applicable
Having guest or keynote speakers injects value into your event.
Inviting an expert to present and speak to your audience can attract more attendees.
If you plan to have guest speakers at your event, book them well in advance.
This will give you enough time to promote their attendance and ensure they have everything they need to host a talk.
7. Get Some Branding Developed
Planning a conference or corporate event is an excellent opportunity to promote your brand or business.
With many marketing opportunities available, it’s a great chance to get your name and logo in front of hundreds of potential clients and create a sense of community.
Develop branding materials for your event, and use printed materials like invitations, tickets, and promotional booklets.
You can also consider making a branded website or an online booking portal to create a cohesive and memorable experience for your event attendees.
8. Order Identification Name Badges
Give your event a polished and professional flair with custom-created ID badges and name badges.
High-quality name badges can enhance an event's professionalism and promote inclusivity by ensuring attendees can easily identify and interact with one another.
When planning a conference or corporate event, you can choose between different types of name badges.
Consider quality personalised name badges if you have a set guest list. But if you want a reusable alternative reusable badges are a great choice, as they’re versatile and adaptable and can be used to display any name.
You can even make your own bespoke name badge that features your own company branding. Check out the Badgemaster badge designer to learn more.
9. Organise Branded Merchandise
Along with branded tickets and promotional booklets, branded merchandise is a great way to promote your brand long after your event.
Things like high-quality enamel badges can be kept after the conference or event as souvenirs, and t-shirts, pens, and other practical branded items like customised lanyards or leather key fobs help attendees remember your event and promote it after they leave.
10. Catering and Security
When thinking about how to plan a successful conference, it’s vital to consider catering and security.
Food menus will need to be planned, and food should meet any special dietary requirements of your guests.
If food is to be catered by an outside vendor, then selections will need to be made in advance and scheduled for delivery.
Security ensures that your event is safe for everyone, and depending on the level of security needed, bag checks or special scanning equipment may need to be requested and installed before the start of the event.
11. Consider Volunteers to Manage Guests
Conference and event planning costs can add up quickly, and paying staff to help to organise and manage your event can take a big chunk of your budget.
To keep costs down, consider using volunteers to manage guests.
Volunteer event staff can handle things such as:
Vehicle parking/valet
Coat check
Event check-in
They can also help you coordinate guests and speakers and direct people to specific areas for special appearances or speeches.
This can help you run your event more smoothly and efficiently.
12. Promote Your Event
Marketing and promoting your conference or corporate event to reach your intended audience can be performed using various channels, including:
Social media
Emails
Website
Paid advertising
Each channel has the potential to reach across audiences or access entirely new audiences to spread the word and attract more event attendees.
13. Finalise the Schedule and Send out Reminders
Make sure everyone remembers the day or your event.
Once you have finalised your event schedule, send out branded reminders to attendees.
This is another opportunity to send branded communications and helps attendees know what to expect on the day of the corporate or conference event.
14. Day of Event - Meet Your Guests at the Door
On the day of the conference or corporate event, guests should be welcomed at the door and handed an ID badge on entry. T
This adds personalisation to the proceedings and helps organisers and event security staff identify and keep track of attendees.
ID badges also help to ensure that only authorised individuals are present or can be assigned to specific groups or individuals.
15. Analyse the Day After the Event
Congratulations, you’ve followed these steps and planned a successful corporate event. So, what’s next?
Now it's time for post-event analysis.
Collected data and information can help to improve future business gatherings.
It highlights areas of weakness that need improvement and shows which elements worked well.
If you have been wondering how to plan a successful conference event, this will help you to strengthen planning and coordination and make your next business event run even better.
Conclusion: Planning a Successful Conference
We hope you’ve enjoyed our step-by-step guide to planning a conference or event.
If you’re looking for an experienced and professional badge maker that has supplied high-quality badges to hundreds of major conference events, Badgemaster is the company for you.
We’re your first name in badges boasting 30 years of experience in corporate event badges. We’ve helped the likes of O2, Virgin Atlantic, and the NHS with their badge needs, and we can help you too.
Check out our name badges for conferences and events page to see how we can help.